Eduardo Stefani

The books of Brazilian history, especially those intended for primary education pupils, treat the monarchy as something distant and negative. The general literature cites characters and facts remotely, almost purposely away from our reality, especially when the facts refer to our monarchy.

The surprise appears when with little reading, we discover that the return of a sovereign was not so remote. We had a plebiscit in 1993 for the brazilian people to choose betweem a Presidential republic or monarchy. It is not a surprise that the first option was the winner, but anyway, we can not forget that 10% of the population chose the second one.

I personally started to get interested in the monarchy after a short talk with a street book seller in São Paulo. At that time, we were living in a period of some anxiety, because we were living during the second half of the year, in other words, a few months before the presidencial election where the candidate Lula was elected. After many years and a troubled history, Brazil would have a brazilian citizen in the literal sense of the word, living in the Federal District and owner of a pen with presidencial powers.

The anxiety was caused by what might happen after that time, because as a young man, I always had some curiosity to understand the brazilian psyche. The year 2002 was also a period of big discoveries for me, since my literature was full of freaky books and I got surprised every day with new perspectives that I learned about brazilian and latin american reality.

Most part of the literature I quoted, was bought through my dear book seller friend, with his lazy cat as an accomplice to our enthusiastic conversations. Between the books I bought, I can quote “The Salvation of Latin America” and “The open veins of Latin America”. They are two books well known for the density of their content that unfold in the mind of a young man who was looking for big heroes in the noble latin american people. It is lamentable how we do not know the history of our continent.

The purchase of a book was always preceded and followed by a passionate discussion about the destinations of Brazil and the world. Normally the theme of the book inspired the conversation. Holding the book “The Salvation of Latin America” and a few months before the presidential election, I asked the book seller what political model would be more apropriate for Brazil. According to the book I had in my hands, I tried naively to provide the answer.

I thought he would respond with something like: We need a Fidel Castro in Brazil, at least for a few years to give some direction to the situation. I also came to imagine the coment should be about the necessity of a bloody revolution to liberate the country from the traitors and unpatriotic parasites who suck and contribute nothing to the colective improvement of the country. I was totally surprised therefore, when I heard from him that the best political model for Brazil would be a monarchy.

In a few seconds all the history books I had studied during childhood came to mind, as well as many ideas from my teachers, parents and everybody else who helped me in forming my views and personality and indeed, I could not argue.

I was only able to get a detailed explanation to help me in my understanding. It caused me some new surprises which changed my perception of the monarchy and motivated me to study more about it.

The cult and bookseller friend argued that the only way to create political conditions for a country still consolidating as a people and a nation, would be to have a government with more continuity, with more commitments regarding the unfolding of each action. He meant that nowadays a president who stays for eight year in power, does not think in long-terms about his actions, however our country needs some intiatives which could run for decades or a generation.

Each president in the present system stays for eight years maximum and the vision of each one is restricit to his own reality, without thinking much about the consequences for the next decade or generation.

With the monarchy we would have a sovereign engaged with his actions, so that they would not cause a tragedy in the next decade.

Maybe the opinion of the bookseller is based essentially on common sense, or because of predominantly personal influences. The fact is that our conversation revealed how great the needs of our country are.

Each four years we have hiccups of optimism and every eight year a change of the chief, so it was in this way in recent times. Beyond the federal government, we have the regional and the town ones, which are very important, however after a government, we have another with new ideas who normally ignores the the ideas of the former.

Lets imagine our country with a palace housing the royalty. We would flip coins in heads or tails, from night to day and we would be subjects of a sovereign. The royal family with some privileges to commit royal gafes and spectacular weddings, such as scandals and love triangles. Maybe a jubilee, royal guard, balls, pretty princesses and princes with dubious inclinations and fatally a royal tax on the whole country.

We would also have a prime minister and as long as our royal family were not only exploiters, a chance could exist to see a government over the years working to not create a short term tragedy.

Leaving aside fiction, the monarchy after being deposed by the republic, tried through conspiracies, study centres and armed actions to return to power. For thirty years there were movements to return the monarchy, so we cannot ignore it.

The history of Brazil has details which are unknow and those who think brazilians do not have blood on their hands are wrong. Unfortunately we normally get intersted in unrelated details.

Today Brazil is maturing as a Republic and certainly does not have space for a different model. Little by little we are getting conscious about the long-term action which we need as a solution for our structural problems, however even with differents owners of the presidential pen, the tendency is to get the desired continuity.

If we have some changes in our historical paths, see you at the next royal ball, who knows, maybe still on Fiscal Island

[], Eduardo Stefani – 26/10/2007

The Brazilian is a noble people, suffering and persistent. Despite so many abuses of his sovereignty and psychological state, they are still strong to continue fighting. Perhaps such abuses may lead to a emotional deprivation, insecurity or even an inferiority complex, because with little analysis we can observe that the Brazilian people have a big wish to be loved and missed by everybody and get horrified when this does not happen.

In the beginning we need to analyze the Brazilian people's relationship with the rest of the world. There is a desire that all citizens of the world admire the national football team, samba, beaches, weather and sympathy. Also, the Brazilian wishes to be fluent in every languages and sometimes, they wish to mix with other citizens, almost as a waiver of their own nationality. Then we see a traumatic conflict. On one hand, they are arrogant and merciless in making their football national team and on the other hand, they are completely subservient, giving up their fantastic and sophisticated language.

When traveling abroad they expect everybody to be shocked in their presence and they think they are charming, sensual and conquering. It is funny the myth of sexual power and hot people, as if the talents of procreation were the previlege of one single nation.

I wish I was a psychologist, then I would write an effective analysis about what happens in a Brazilians mind when they have to relate to another culture.

The problem is that normally all expectation of brazilian people are filled, especially when they invade Europe and North America for sightseeing. As the trips are expensive, only a small portion of the people can experince this privilege and inevitably they are always honored by the football, beaches and their sexual myth.

Actually, it sounds like a gift of the gods or a big reward when they stay for some days abroad for sightseeing or working. The arrogance and inferiority complex mix together. Simultaneously they wear the national football teams shirts and feel themselves to be the best in the world, however they get impressed whith a lamp post when it is cleaned every day by a town hall employee. They show themselves to the nordic women with steamy sexuality and get suprised by the pedestrian crossing filmed and controlled by the metropolitan police where the yellon ball is blinking all the time.

It is an unprecedented conflict. It is an inferiority complex, mixed with insecurity and finally with a lot of grace. Something is missing in the soul of the brazilian people for them to have a confidente look and to show other arguments that are not sexuality, beach and football. Everybody knows, except them, there are no lack of arguments and reasons for a brazilian to feel pride abroad.

The other face appears when a brazilian travels to the poorest areas in the planet, including to the poorest areas inside his own country. The main example is his neighbours, who's admiration for the football, beaches and sexuality is relative and invariably the brazilian feels the sensation of not being welcome.

They get horrified when they go to South America and are not loved. They seek revenge when restrictions are put on their companies, especially the energy companies.

When they are opposed, they immediately want retaliation, revenge, penalties or any action which can renew the ego. They are untouchable lords and desire respect, however the next moment, they are obedient like slaves. Everything depends on the audience. If they are in a poor area, they will be stars, but if they are in a rich area, they will be bastards.

The honourable brazilian neighbour is the most perfect example of opposition and I think the brazilians have a lot to learn from the argentinians. The argentinians criticize them, make jokes and they think they are the best without mercy. Sometimes they think the brazilians are imperialists and other times they think they are false. I have heard from argentinian friends that brazilians have the desire to dominate the world.

They have the tendency to compare themselves to others. The interesting point is the megalomaniac sense in the comparasion, because the first problem they face, they make a parallel with the reality in Switzerland, Denmark, Norway or any country with a high quality of life. They never try to make a comparasion with countries on the same cultural level as themselves or with less prosperous areas in rich coutries. It could cause serious depressions, because many brazilian public squares are dirtier than Geneva's public squares, but, many public squares in the world may be in the same condition.

The brazilian is a sweet and kindly people and I know they will have a noble place in the history of western civilization, however they need to mature as a nation and understand that they are the owner of their history,

Unfortunately the brazilians make the same mistake I made during this text. The country and the people always refer to themselves in the third person.

[], Eduardo Stefani – 25/10/2007

Diplomacy is one of the few areas of knowledge stuffed with passion, contradictions and on mystique. Actually, defining it in this way is a bold step, because in fact it covers a lot of areas, on top of that it is complemented by the personal touch of a diplomat.

Diplomatic missions are loaded with strategy, protection of interests, momentary loss to future gains, glamor, concealing, lies, bluffing and lastly, a sense of loyalty to the nation which transcends any personal aspirations. Maybe this last item is the motive for the sense of devastated impotence felt by a diplomat. A career in diplomacy is exercised by bright people and of a high intellect. How to live with an academic vanity of a politicized intellectual with the mission to meet tasks given by the state, specially when its against his more intimate convictions.

The task to represent a country abroad is noble. The function and recognition are formal and covered in elegance, specially for the diplomats who has the privilege to live single and historical moments with the possibility to leave a legacy.

Before I go any further I offer my sincere apologies to the diplomats who are reading this text, because although I am a lover of subjects related to international relation, I do not have the breath of culture to write about the subject, including assumptions about what would or would not constitute the activity of this noble career.

This passion led me to search literature which could meet my hungry need to understand the world, through the instruments used by all nations and to leave the merely personal vision about what the world would be or would not be. This vision lasts for a short time and dies with the ingenuous ideology exclusively based on a better world, without think about the complex national web of interests which leads us to the actual reality. We are all accomplices of each international action which leads the world to the actual political and economic stage.

During the reading of the bright text entitled “Pomp and Circumstances of a glorious career” from the Brazilian diplomat José Osvaldo de Meira Penna, I had the inspiration to create this space on the Internet to talk about diplomacy. I must leave here my thanks to the gentle Ambassador Meira Penna for the permission to use the title of his text.

The text quotes a Shakespeare work which illustrates the glorious war as an act full of pride, pomp and circumstances. Actually it is a piece of work named Othello and it fits perfectly in contemporary diplomacy.

The other side of the story is more raw and it determines the sovereignty, survival, economic space, conflict solution and the lastly, the existence of a country in the international context.

Welcome with all pomp and circumstance.

[], Eduardo Stefani – 24/10/2007

I wrote my last article in the heat of the moment after reading the text I said, which is a summary about the conservative acts of the candidate for vice-president of our norther brother. I tried to pass my perception on, actually, something personal about the speeches we are listening to every day, as well as the whole culture, because both are showing a severe lack of quality.

After a few days, I think I was a little pessimistic. It give us the perception that everything is bad. I didn't want to insinuate that the world is loosing its way, but I was talking about western speeches, basically I have access to. My big questioning is how in a moment so technologically advanced and with huge general knowledge, we can be bought by cheap speeches. The minds seen to be unprepared to the correctly understand. Not who shows political or ideological trends, but regarding basic questions which must be overcomed for centuries, as the attempt to take creationism, as is the intention of some figures in power, including Brazil.

Beyond these perceptions, I wish to make a few comments:

I said that the big world wars collaborated to impoverishing world speech. Even though wars have been occurring during the entire history of mankind, we experimented with a good period of peace and construction of contemporary civilization during the last centuries. The big world wars, to some extend, brutalized men. Who didn't go, watched the collapse and destruction of all that they saw since they were children. Who went to war and came back alive, were brutalized, because of everything they saw. We had from this moment, the trigger for a lot of violence during the entire twentieth century and the reappearance of practices considered very wild for a civilized man. We can't forget after 2001, torture practices were frighteningly condoned.

It's a perception I have, specially as a conclusion of what I have been reading recently. Maybe I'm have been partial or even wrong, but we can't deny that we saw during the twentieth century the loss of some civilized habits we had developed during the last centuries.

On the other hand, my article seems nostalgic. I couldn't be nostalgic, because I have existed on this planet since the end of the romantic '70s. It's a tendency to say that the past is better and we are living in decay. It's true, because if we take some newspaper articles from the 18th or 19th century, we also read of the feeling that society is in decay, therefore I hope I haven't passed on a nostalgic message. In summary, the decay walks hand in hand with development and the challenge is to find the correct measure.

I quoted a film named “The Decline of the American Empire”. If you have net seen it, you must watch it, with its sensitivity and depth it shows what is happening to us. The decline comes from the individuality, low birth rate and many facts evident in the film. I confess I can't remember all the details and it deserves my attention one more time. It's curious, because there are eight academics, four men and four women. At a dinner, lubricated by wine, the subject is sexuality, trivia and after all something about Marx. Actually it's a welcome mix, but gives a notion which may result in the multiplier effect of a society emphasizing individuality and forgetting the society. At least in my understanding, the decline is hiding there, in an individualistic society. This paragraph deserves some articles to synthesize the messages and try to understand the impoverishment of out speech.

Also a hint of the movie “The Barbarian Invasions”!

I hope I could clarify some points I got as contradictory. It can cause a nice evening of warm discussions.

[], Eduardo Stefani - 30/10/2008

Thanks to a south-African friend's indication, I appreciated an article named “Sarah Palin'v War on Science” and it inspired me to write this text. Actually, it was the missing piece for me to resume some observation I have been doing these last months. The article describes the conservative level that the republican lady exudes in her speeches and I couldn't escape from an observation:

It's unbelievable how we have at present an incredible poor quality of speeches and a setback in some crucial concepts, specially to the western civilization, so advanced and owner of the modern reason. We must feel for the brilliant scientists, who witnessed an incredible scientific and civilizing advances. The optimism was so big, that on the turn of the century, they think we haven't anything to invent.

Maybe the beginning of those poor speeches began with the big world wars. They, in a sense, have collaborated to destroy the sense of advanced civilization built during many centuries. Maybe it has destroyed the dignity and faith of noble and sophisticated concepts. Mankind, after the medieval delay, could get a level of peace and intellectuality patterns, however in a short time we saw every thing destroyed with two big sweeping world wars who finished with any attempt of civilizing modes, specially in the last one, a personal war, of the common people and not only to the uniform men.

At the turn of the century, we saw science moving forward. On the Origin of Species, the notion of universe beyond our small globe, anthropology, sociology and the physical revolution. The discovery that we live on a planet resulting from millions of consecutive years of an evolution process.

From the cyclical destruction and creation process. From the appearing and hiding of species and entire areas. The reality around us. It's hard to escape from the fact that our world is made of sand and stone, even though we like to believe in the existence of other dimensions between our simple quotidian life.

The election process of north has been marked by discussion about basic religious concepts, brought up normally by conservatives or almost fundamentalists. Subjects which should have long been resolved, specially in that part of the globe, which has contributed so much to the western civilization's advances in the twenty century.

We must not limit ourselves only to religious subjects. On the table we always have terrorism as a psychological weapon to frighten the common people. Now the financial crises. Also something should have long been resolved with a modern international market. It seems we are going backwards and will not be a surprise if we have to discuss the navigation of dangerous seas.

Our level is too low. The speech is poor and futile. It does remember me a classical film named “The Decline of the American Empire”. The civilizing seemed languish when we pass to latch in futile, morons and poor concepts, or any mean we would like. When our concerns going to be cheaper and most important of the collective survival.

Is it the beginning of the end ? Are we loose front our evolution and we are to come back to old values ? How in a modern time are the minds purchased for fundamentalists with sticky speeches.

[], Eduardo Stefani – 28/10/2008

Link to the article: http://www.slate.com/id/2203120